In 31 Days

Day 24: Low

Slowly, I opened my eyes. After realizing the sun's rays were too harsh on my sensitive irises, I quickly lifted my hands to shield myself. Vaguely, I heard footsteps padding towards me.

Alex held out an orange as his morning hair greeted me with a growl.

Alex, I thought.

Wait a second. Alex?

I stared at him bewildered.

"Why are you here?" I demanded.

He scoffed. "I saved you last night and all you can say do is treat me like shit?"

I knitted my eyebrows together. Alex was in my home city right now, not here. Was I hallucinating?

He sighed as he slowly came closer.

Pausing for a moment, he said, "Your mom called last night because you were missing. Something didn't feel too right, since I knew you like to get into trouble, so I drove here. It's actually much quicker than you think."

I shook my head quickly.

"Then how did you find me in the alley?"

He shrugged sheepishly.

"I linked Find My iPhone on your phone to mine so I could track you."

I widened my eyes without thought.

"Alex!" I shrieked. "That's practically harassment!"

He grinned for the first time since I saw him.

"I hope it's not a big deal to you — I mean, it came in handy last night," he added quickly.

"Then how did you stop them?"

His face turned dark as he remembered the details.

"I heard your scream."

He closed his eyes painfully.

"It was unlike anything I've ever heard you say. It quite literally reverberated my spine that for a moment I couldn't breathe air."

He took a moment as he pondered what to say next.

"I can't remember all the details — I don't want to remember all the details. All I know is somehow we got from us being happy to you coming to this shit town and anger and being reckless and I don't know why," he said, frustratedly.

"I needed a breather. It was nothing against you," I said, lying through my teeth.

He looked at me carefully.

Pointing, he said, "You're lying. It is about me, and I know it is, but I can't do anything about it."

"About what?" I asked.

"Nothing," he brushed off. "Let's go home — school starts again tomorrow, and we're almost done with this year. I don't want to talk about anything else."

"Fine," I said calmly. Frankly, I just wanted to get out of the claustrophobic room. "Let's go."

I got my mom to believe that nothing was up, that he came just to check on me, and that we should probably head on back.

"You sure nothing happened? It was late," my mom said accusingly, looking at me from head to toe to see if any lies were apparently visible on my body.

"No," Alex cut in smoothly. "I missed her."

I smiled and blushed, looking down. Although we weren't on the best of terms, his sincerity still warmed my heart.

"Alright," my mother said, disbelieving, as she tugged the last bag into the car. After we both got into the back seat, I looked at Alex and said the first thing that came to mind.

"I know I haven't even said this to you yet, but thank you."

"For what?" Alex asked, goading me.

I sighed. "For 'saving' my life. I still don't really know what went down, but thanks."

He smiled, leaning back in his seat.

"You know," he started, avoiding eye contact, "you just don't know how lovely you are."

I waited a beat.

He continued, "I had to find you, tell you I need you. Can we go back to the start?"

I knitted my eyebrows together as I pondered the words.

"Isn't that from a Coldplay song?" I asked in wonder.

He grinned sheepishly.

"I thought the lyrics were applicable to now."

Despite my best interests, I smiled. Stupid teenage angst, I thought.

And we hummed along to the song as my mom drove us back to our paper town. I knew my decision to travel to the store probably wasn't the best idea, but to be quite honest, I liked playing with fire. Maybe that was why I was always so intrigued with Alex; he never failed to bring out another side of me, a side that was always questioning, more often than not angry, and completely insane.

These days, I think that I'm more multifaceted than ever. I am learning that there are many different kinds of people, and that how just like you can't fit a square peg in a round hole, our human nature, different body curvatures and all, will never let is be defined as certain stereotypes.

I am not that girl who seems quintessential, nor that girl who hides herself for fear of blasting sunlight. I am M-E. Weirdspunkysmartstupidhotcoldsaltybitterintrivertedoutgoing me, and for once, I'm okay with it.